The Tao (Dao) that can be pronounced
Is not the eternal Tao (Dao)
The name that can be spoken
Is not the eternal Name.
I call the beginning of Heaven and Earth "Not-Being"
I call the mother of each human being "Be"
Striving for "Not-Being" leads
To contemplating the marvelous Essence;
Striving for Being leads
To contemplating spacial limits
By their origin both are the same,
Being different only in name.
In Unity, this One is a mystery,
The mystery of mysteries
The door through which walk marvels.
Tao (Dao) Te King
Lao Tzu

Ancient Chinese theology taught that in heaven there was one god on whom the world was simply dependent, a god who rewarded the good and punished the wicked. Together with this father in heaven, accompanied by the mother--earth--whose presence never affected the basic monotheistic thought, there was a pantheon of nature spirits and ancestors. In spite of their dependence on heaven, they nonetheless had their specific areas to take care of, similar to a king's counselors and ministers.

With Lao Tzu, the definitive elimination of religious anthropomorphism began. Heaven and Earth do not have emotions of human love. For them all beings are merely sacrificial dogs made of straw, that in ancient China were burned after offering sacrifices.

Nevertheless, Lao Tzu is far from considering nature's course as something accidental and disordered. He is free of all skepticism and pessimism in this way. He does not fight only against popular religion, but rather substitutes it with something higher and all-encompassing. Based in the old wisdom of the Book of Changes, Lao Tzu had recognized that the world's essence is not a statically mechanical condition. The world is in constant flux and transformation. The Book of Changes shows equally that all changes occur according to established laws. The conception of the book is based in the idea that the totality of the phenomenological world is based in a complementary antagonism between the polarities of passive, negative Yin energies and active, positive Yang energies. These energies are in constant transformation. Unity divides and converts itself into duplicity; duplicity unites and becomes unity. What is at the end of everything, in the core of all changes, is the great polarity (Tai Gi), the unity that transcends duality, all acts and even all existence. These changes are processed by means of a fixed and clearly meaningful path (Tao), in the path of heaven (T'ien Tao), to which corresponds, on earth, the human path (Jen Tao).

Confucius sought heaven's path. For Lao Tzu, heaven's path was not the highest level. The highest and most definitive level was beyond personality, even beyond what any person could perceive or define in some way. Neither was it a nothingness, but something that escaped the capacity of human thought.

For something like that there is no natural name since all names are born from living; and yet that thing is what first allows living. He named that thing, by necessity, "Tao", only so that he could talk about it, because he did not know what to call it and he also called it "great". The Tao of heaven and the Tao of humankind were always known, but not the absolute Tao. Tao means path. But in Lao Tzu's meaning it cannot be translated in any way as path or way. There are two Chinese words for path. One is "Lu". It comes from the combination of the symbols for "foot" and "each". It is what each foot steps on, the path that comes exactly from the fact of being walked. Transposing that meaning, this expression could be used for the modern concept of natural law, that is of the same type, accepted as existing, since the processes occur according to the meaning of this law. Another word for path is Tao (Dao), written by combining the symbols for "head" and "walk". A substantially different meaning from "Lu" comes from this. It is the meaning of a path that leads to an objective; that of a direction, of an indicated path, having, at the same time, the meaning of "speak" and "guide". It seems that this symbol was initially used for the astronomical trajectories of celestial bodies.

Speaking of the Tao (Dao), Lao Tzu was concerned with removing everything that could be reminiscent of some type of existence. In that way, the Tao is on a level totally different from all others pertaining to the world of phenomena. It is before heaven and earth; it is not possible to say from whence it comes; it is even before the meaning of God. It is based on itself, unchangeable and in eternal circulation.

Even if the existence of the Tao (Dao) is denied, it is not, however, simply nothing. Because nothing can come from nothing. It is true that the Tao (Dao) is neither temporal nor spacial. Looking for it we do not see it; listening for it we hear not; and though we want to touch it, we cannot feel it. Yet in that spacial and temporal non-being there is variety somehow deposited. Even without seeing, hearing or feeling, there is something in it that corresponds to all of those senses; figures, images, even if unformed, immaterial. It is then found on a level that is beyond being and non-being. But neither is it so unreal that things cannot come from it.

Richard Wilhelm's comments
from the Tao Te King.